Quantum Mechanics

Whenever I read through the theory of quantum mechanics I am reminded of a priest trying to explain the existence of God. They go through greats lengths to obfuscate and confuse, thinking to themselves that they if they can't be complete and thorough, at least they can make it sound like they are attempting to cover all possible weaknesses in their arguments. What I will try to do here is to first explain what problem quantum mechanics was developed to solve, and from this, what answers quantum mechanics provides that cannot be provided using another theory.

Questions that I would like answered:

1. Why is energy absorption quantified?
2. Why is electromagnetic energy quantified?
3. Why are there electron and nuclear orbitals rather than a random distribution of particles?

Mathematics is a useful tool that approximates reality. The key word is 'approximates'. Reality is always more complicated than math can handle. Any real world system under study always has too many factors involved to draw any absolute conclusions, so the observer has to ignore a bunch of the factors, claiming that their contribution is too small to worry about. This is a common theme in all science, unfortunate but necessary if any useful conclusions are to be made.

States

To get quantum mechanics one has to have a good understanding of the idea of states and there is no better way to understand something than to see it in action. So here is a two-state system that can be constructed easily. A video showing it in action will be posted soon:

Materials:

• 4 bar magnets
• 1 swivel
• 2 containers to hold the magnets

Construction:

1. Divide the four magnets into two groups by aligning them north-south, so now there are two pairs of magnets with north AND south on each end.
2. Place the two pairs into separate oval containers so the magnets are constrained but able to twist freely with the containers.
3. bind the two containers by attaching a swivel onto each container in the center. Allowing free rotation around the long axis.

Two states in action: At equilibrium the containers will always line up long end, they can be rotated with energy input, but as soon as you let go, they go back to long-way alignment again. There are two states, both equivalent in that the containers can twist 180 degrees to align the other direction, but there is no equilibrated half-way state. Any attempt to rotate requires energy, but no change in state happens unless the correct amount is added to cause a complete half-rotation.

The energy needed to change state is thus just enough to rotate a container barely past 90 degrees. The field will then push it (or pull it, depending on your point-of-view) to align the other direction.